The short answer
Most AI product homepages get the basics right: 98% have a title and 94% a meta description. The common gaps are elsewhere: one in four descriptions is long enough to be cut off, 13% of homepages are nearly empty without JavaScript, 70% do not describe the product in structured data, and renamed products do not always redirect their old domain. Fix those, and publish the pages people search for: pricing, docs and comparisons.
| Check | Homepages passing | What to aim for |
|---|---|---|
| Title element | 155 of 158 (98%) | A specific, concise title that names the product and what it does |
| Meta description | 149 of 158 (94%) | A unique, accurate summary; 39 of 149 run past 160 characters |
| Share image (og:image) | 141 of 158 (89%) | An image that represents the product on social posts |
| Canonical link | 134 of 158 (85%) | One preferred URL per page |
| Sitemap | 160 of 182 sites (88%) | A sitemap listing every public page |
| Product structured data | 48 of 158 (30%) | SoftwareApplication or Product markup with category and price |
| Text before JavaScript | 138 of 158 (87%) | Key content in the initial HTML |
What we checked
On October 2, 2026 we fetched the homepages of 182 AI products in the SOTA catalog; 158 loaded for a plain request, and those are the basis for the homepage figures. We recorded the title, meta description, share image, canonical link, structured data and how much text appears before JavaScript runs, and checked each site for a sitemap. The same dataset backs our guide on getting found by AI assistants.
The basics most products get right
Almost every homepage has a title (98%) and a meta description (94%), and most have a share image (89%), a canonical link (85%) and a sitemap (88%). These are table stakes, and most website builders and frameworks add them for you.
The median title is 44 characters. Google sets no limit on title length, but it shortens title links to fit the screen, so keep the product name and what it does near the start.
Descriptions: accurate first, then short
39 of the 149 descriptions (26%) are longer than 160 characters. Google builds snippets mainly from page content and uses the meta description when it describes the page better, so length matters less than accuracy: say what the product does and who it is for in the first sentence.
Write a different description for every important page. Google recommends unique descriptions over one repeated across a site.
Pages that only exist after JavaScript runs
20 of the 158 homepages (13%) have fewer than 500 characters of text before JavaScript runs. Google renders JavaScript, but its documentation notes that not all bots can, and recommends server-side rendering or prerendering because it is faster for users and crawlers alike.
If your site is a single-page app, prerender at least the homepage, pricing, docs and comparison pages, where the facts people search for live.
Renames and moves lose traffic when old URLs break
While adding products to SOTA in 2026 we met many renames and moves. Several handled them well: Kilo Code's old kilocode.ai, OpenHands' all-hands.dev and Factory's factory.ai all redirect to the new address. Liner's old getliner.com instead answers with a 'Liner has moved' page and a 410 status, which tells search engines the page is gone rather than where it went.
Google recommends permanent redirects (301 or 308) from every old URL to its new equivalent, kept for at least a year, plus the Change of Address tool in Search Console for a new domain. Keep the old name in your copy for a while too, since people will keep searching for it.
Pages worth having from day one
A public pricing page. In our pricing study, 117 of 199 catalog products had a readable /pricing page; many of the rest priced only inside an app, behind sales, or at another address. Buyers and AI assistants compare prices, and they can only use what they can read.
Documentation, a changelog and honest comparison pages. They answer the questions people type into search, keep showing that the product is maintained, and give other sites something specific to link to.
Product-level structured data. Only 30% of homepages describe the product itself in structured data, so adding it is a simple way to stand out.
Sources & method
Official documentation was checked on 2026-10-02. Selection advice is our assessment. Interfaces and requirements may change; check the linked source for the version you intend to use.
- Dataset (CSV): metadata for 182 AI product sites, checked October 2, 2026
- Google: SEO starter guide
- Google: Influencing title links
- Google: Control your snippets
- Google: JavaScript SEO basics
- Google: Site moves with URL changes
- Google: Introduction to structured data
- How AI products price in 2026 (SOTA pricing study)
How SOTA reviews projects · Suggest a correction · Download the evaluation checklist
